(Lisbon) The head of the Web Summit, one of the main global meetings for the digital economy, announced on Saturday that he had resigned due to the positions he had taken publicly on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“Unfortunately, my personal comments have become a distraction from the event,” explained Irishman Paddy Cosgrave in a brief statement sent to AFP.

“I once again offer my sincere apologies for any suffering that I may have caused,” added the co-founder of the high mass of technology created in 2009 in Dublin, but which has been held in Lisbon since 2016.

“The Web Summit will appoint a new general director as soon as possible” and this year’s edition, which is expected to bring together some 2,300 start-ups and more than 70,000 participants from November 13 to 16, “will go ahead as planned.” , indicated a spokesperson for the organization.

However, several companies, including the giants Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and headliners decided to boycott the meeting after its chief organizer claimed on X (formerly Twitter) to be “shocked by the rhetoric and actions of many Western leaders and governments” in support of Israel.

“War crimes are war crimes, even when committed by allies, and should be denounced for what they are,” the Irish entrepreneur wrote again on October 13.

He has since issued an apology, but it does not appear to have soothed his relations with many partners.

Israel was the victim of an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7. More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel since the attack. Most of them were civilians who died on the day of the attack, including children, the deadliest since the creation of the State of Israel.

Israeli retaliatory strikes killed more than 4,100 people, mostly Palestinian civilians, including hundreds of children, according to local authorities.

According to the Israeli military, around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the Israeli counter-offensive.